Convert JPG or PNG to MacPaint

[agg23]

How can you convert JPG or PNG to MacPaint files? GraphicConverter doesn't have MacPaint export as a option, though it says on the website that it will work.

 

[Watchsmart]

GifConverter, perhaps?

http://download.cnet.com/GIFConverter/3000-2192_4-10013442.html

 

[vassilizaitsev]

"Graphic converter" does a great job of converting image formats.

 

[porter]

If you can copy the image to the clipboard as a PICT, I would have thought that MacPaint would paste it in.

Perhaps SuperPaint?

If you ever wondered why MacPaint has a 50% grey desktop no matter what you do, it's because the author thought he knew better than the user about desktops.

 

[Mike Richardson]

How can you convert JPG or PNG to MacPaint files? GraphicConverter doesn't have MacPaint export as a option, though it says on the website that it will work.

GraphicConverter v5.9.5 has a MacPaint format choice for "Save As".

It looks like MacPaint format uses compression called "PackBits". The toolbox command was ported to Carbon so I assume it's still there all the way up to Snow Leopard, etc.

For some reason though the first 512 bytes of a MacPaint file are just zeros. Then the actual data starts which I assume is 1-bit per pixel information compressed with PackBits.

 

[porter]

For some reason though the first 512 bytes of a MacPaint file are just zeros.

http://www.fileformat.info/format/macpaint/spec/b5e08a18d0a8467f82d420369032c79f/MACPAINT.TXT

The first 512 bytes contains a version and the palette.

 

[MarkS]

If you ever wondered why MacPaint has a 50% grey desktop no matter what you do, it's because the author thought he knew better than the user about desktops.

No, it is because Bill Adkinson, who also wrote QuickDraw, was a programmer, not an artist. More to the point, there is no desktop in MacPaint. Nor are there any movable windows. It takes over the entire screen and OS. This was made before multitasking arrived on the Mac.

To the original question, the MacPaint format had a major limitation other than the 1-bit bit depth. The file dimensions are a static 612 x 792 (8.5" x 11" @72 DPI). Actually, it may have been a little bit larger. Those numbers do not seem correct.